Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2010 > March > 17 > Entry
SXSW interview: Cheap Trick
True story: In 1982, my friend Rob and I — massive Cheap Trick fans both — made a pilgrimage to the band’s hometown of Rockford, Il., where we visited guitarist Rick Nielsen’s parents’ music store and the home of drummer Bun E. Carlos’ mom before getting tickets (and backstage passes!) to the band’s show the next night in Peoria.
I told Nielsen that story Wednesday morning. His reaction: “This guy’s a stalker.”
My goal in doing a sit-down with the greatest power pop band ever was to not be like Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney: “Remember when you wrote ‘Surrender?’ That was awesome.” But three-fourths of the band (Carlos was elsewhere) was funny and gracious and generous with their time. The guys are in town for an appearance at Waterloo Records, a taping of “Austin City Limits” and headlining a free show at Auditorium Shores Friday night with the BoDeans and Cracker.
We talked about working once again with producer Julian Raymond on last year’s imaginatively titled “The Latest,” which includes originals, a song written for Robin Zander’s solo album and a killer cover of Slade’s “When the Lights are Out,” with Nielsen quoting himself from “Elo Kiddies” from his own band’s first album. “He’s like a fifth member of the band,” vocalist Zander said. Nielsen added that, unlike some unnamed collaborators the band has hooked up with before, “He doesn’t have us tame down anything.”
They’ve had their share of producers for sure. The band has long had a beef with the sound of their second album, “In Color,” which producer buffed to a poppy sheen. The version of “I Want You to Want Me” was “so wimpy compared to how we did it live,” Nielsen said.
Yeah, there’s a reason the live version from “At Budokan” is the one that became a hit.
More recently, the band did a short stretch performing the entirety of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in Las Vegas and at the Hollywood Bowl. Any chance they’d book a return engagement, or do they not want to turn into Celine Dion.
“We’re up for anything,” bassist Tom Pettersson said. “It meant a lot to us.”
“They’re gonna have to pay us a lot of money,” Zander cracked.
For those of you who’ve lost track of time, the band’s self-titled debut came out in 1977. Since then they’ve sold some 20 million records, racked up about 40 gold and platinum awards and played countless thousands of shows. The only thing not scratched from the to-do list is “ACL,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (rrrrrr) and papal canonization. So what keeps them going?
“This is what we do,” Zander said. “We’re a rock band.”
“All of us are music fans anyhow,” Nielsen said. “I said years ago if I wasn’t in Cheap Trick, I’d be a fan of Cheap Trick.”
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | | Categories: SXSW 2010
